Tim May, the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA) CEO, has threatened legal action if the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) fails to ensure that the players involved in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) held in February have been paid.

In a letter to the BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal, dated May 19, May urged him to inform the BPL franchises to clear all outstanding dues to the players within five days. Although May 9 was the original deadline for foreign players' payments and May 31 for the locals, it is learned that the board had asked the franchises to clear all dues by the first week of June.

"Whilst we have a communication avenue open, I wish to express, on behalf of the majority of players that recently participated in the Bangladesh Premier League, our continued disappointment that a large number of players, both foreign and local, still have not received their full entitlements from their franchises," PakPassion.net quoted May's letter, as saying.

"The continued broken promises and deadlines is causing great harm to the integrity of the franchises, the Bangladesh Premier League, the Bangladesh Cricket Board, and all of the officials within such organisations."

May warned the BCB of various repercussions if the franchises fail to pay up within the deadline.

"Following the inability of the franchises to meet such deadlines, we demand that the BCB satisfies the guarantees it has agreed to under the player agreements immediately. This applies to all outstanding player fees, both to domestic and foreign players," May wrote.

"If the sums of money are not received by players within 5 business days, FICA will be forced to explore legal routes to recover these monies from the BCB. Additionally FICA will further advise all foreign and domestic players not to participate in any future BPL events."

The letter also quoted part of players' contract in which it was stated that 25% of a player's fee would be paid before February 2, two weeks after the players' auction and a week before the tournament started. The second installment (50% of the player fees) was supposed to be paid on or before February 23 while the rest (25%) was supposed to be cleared "within 45 days of the completion of the players' involvement in the league".

With the delayed payments and all such hassles, I wonder if the second edition will even take place, and if it does will it attract enough for a proper staging!